Introduction
A quoted structure is the element you insert in Lawmaker to contain inserted or substituted provisions when you are creating a textual amendment in a Bill or SI, or creating a parliamentary amendment.
A quoted structure can contain any kind of provision and will normally appeared indented on the page and surrounded by quote marks. In the Editor a quoted structure will be shown with a dotted line around it to distinguish from other provisions.
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(They’re called “quoted structures” because <quotedStructure> is the name of the element used in Akoma Ntoso to hold structured content that is being quoted in some way from another document. They are similar to what, in the existing SI template, were called “long quotes”.)
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If you are creating a textual amendment in a Bill or SI that only inserts or substitutes a single word or a phrase then you should use a quoted text element instead - see Quoted Text. |
How to insert a quoted structure
Use any of the following methods:
right-click in the Editor and select Insert quoted structure
from the Insert menu in the toolbar, select Insert quoted structure
use keyboard shortcut CTRL+q
Select a starting element and adjust any other settings in the dialogue box.
Click Insert.
Lawmaker will insert a quoted structure containing the selected starting element on a new line below the provision your cursor is in,.
If the starting element has a number, then the number will be left empty (but parentheses will still be present if the element number would normally have them) and it will be locked (see Locking and unlocking numbers). You can manually add a number to the first element and subsequent elements will be numbered accordingly.
Setting the properties of a quoted structure
When you insert a quoted structure you can set various properties of the the quoted structure. Some of these can be updated after the quoted structure is inserted by right-clicking within the quoted structure and selecting Update quoted structure properties (You can also do the same using the Insert menu in the toolbar.)
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Document type
(Can’t be changed after quoted structure is inserted.)
Starting provision
(Can’t be changed after quoted structure is inserted.)
Indent level
The main purpose of indent levels in the quoted structure properties, is to increase the indent of the overall quoted structure for occasions when you are inserting a textual amendment which is itself already within a quoted structure in the target document. The indent level will be applied globally to that quoted structure so that all provisions inserted within it will have the indent level applied. This indent level is in addition to the single, global indent applied to quoted structures which is represented by the ‘none’ option in the Indent level option.
Start and end quote mark
Following text
Inserting an adjacent quoted structure
With your cursor placed in the quoted structure you want the adjacent quoted structure to appear after:
right-click in the Editor view or Structure view and select ‘Insert adjacent quoted structure’, or
From the upper toolbar, select ‘Insert > Insert adjacent quoted structure’
In the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal:
Select the starting element for the new adjacent quoted structure
Specify the necessary indent level to apply to the adjacent quoted structure
Select whether you require a starting and ending quotation mark
Update the following text if required
And click Insert
The system will insert the adjacent quoted structure immediately after the one where your cursor was containing the selected starting element
Continue drafting your quoted structure
Inserting nested quoted structures
With your cursor in the provision introducing the nested quoted structure, insert a nested quoted structure by following ‘insert quoted structure’ step 1
The system will insert a nested quoted structure, within your existing quoted structure
Updating quoted structure properties
With your cursor in the quoted structure you want to update, either:
right-click in Editor view and Structure view and select ‘Update quoted structure properties’
from the upper toolbar, select ‘Insert > update quoted structure properties’
In the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal you can change:
The indent level
The starting and ending quotation mark
The following text
And click ‘OK’ to save your changes
The system will update the quoted structure according to your changes
See also
Screencast - Inserting quoted structures in SI/SSIs
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Hints and tips
The ‘Document Type’ will select, by default, the same document type that you are drafting.
Changing the document type will change the starting element list according to elements in the selected document type.
If you select a quoted structure for a different document type, the PDF will render the elements in the correct styles for the target document, but will match the font sizes for text to the document it has been inserted within so that it looks and reads better.
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Selecting the document type determines how the contents of the quoted structure will be formatted and what starting elements are available.
By default, the document type will be the Act type that corresponds to the document you are editing (e.g. an Act of the Scottish Parliament if you are editing a Scottish Bill, or a UKPGA if you are editing an amendment list for the Commons or the Lords)..
The possible types are:
Act of the Scottish Parliament (asp)
United Kingdom Public General Act (ukpga)
UK Statutory Instrument
Scottish Statutory Instrument
EU Regulation, EU Directive or EU Decision
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If you select a different document type, the PDF will render the elements in the appropriate styles for the target document, except in relation to font style an size which will match the main document. That means if you include an asp quoted structure in a UK Bill, or a ukpga quoted structure in a Scottish Bill, there may be some presentational differences in the content of the quoted structure when you generate a PDF. If you want the contents of the quoted structure to look exactly like other provisions in the Bill then set the document type to the Act type that corresponds to the Bill. |
Starting element
(Can’t be changed after quoted structure is inserted.)
The list of possible starting elements is determined by the document type. The list include all possible elements in the main body and in schedules - there are separate options for grouping elements in the body and schedule (e.g. “Part” and “Sch Part”).
Indent level
All provisions in a quoted structure are, by default, indented compared to how they would be if they appeared directly in the document.
The Indent level option allows you to alter that indent.
Indent level -1 removes the normal indent that is applied to provisions within a quoted structure.
Indent levels 1 and above add additional indent beyond the deafult indent.
See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/25526905/Default+indent+for+starting+provisions+in+a+quoted+structure for more on when and how to use this feature.
Start quote and end quote
If a quoted structure is to be surrounded by quote marks, you should select them here.
By default, a quoted structure will be set to have double inverted commas “ and “ except in the case of a Scottish Parliament amendment which uses < and >.
In the Editor, the quote marks will be shown outside the box around the quoted structure content but in the PDF they will be displayed correctly.
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Avoid setting the quote marks to none and then inserting the quote marks directly within the content of the quoted structure. That can cause problems with numbering and formatting elsewhere. |
Following text
Enter here any text that you want to appear directly after the closing quote mark. This will usually be punctuation and/or a conjunction, e.g. “;” or “, and”.
It is easier to enter it here rather than trying to add this text in the Editor. Doing so will also guarantee that the text is placed in the correct element will display correctly in the PDF.
Inserting a quoted structure immediately after another quoted structure
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To insert a quoted structure immediately after another quoted structure either:
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See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/25526905/Default+indent+for+starting+provisions+in+a+quoted+structure for more on when and how to use this feature.
Nested quoted structures
It is possible to insert a quoted structure within an existing quoted structure. Just place your cursor within the existing quoted structure and follow the instructions above to insert a new quoted structure.
Tables in quoted structures
You can insert a table
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as a starting element by selecting “table” as the starting element. This will take you to the “Insert table” dialogue box allowing you to specify the type of table/table row that you want to insert. If you just want to insert a single row of a table then insert a table with only 1 row and no table number, caption or header - see Inserting and managing tables.
Moving existing provisions in and out of quoted structures
See Moving elements in or out of Quoted Structures for help with this.
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More notes on quoted structures
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If the starting element was a numbered element, the number will be locked so that renumbering won’t affect it. The number will be empty by default (with parentheses if the number has them) and will need updating accordingly. The lock only affects renumbering.
The indent level in the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal will be applied to all provisions in the quoted structure and was predominantly designed to be used when quoting text from another document that is itself in a quoted structure – in which case you would select indent level 1.
There is a -1 indent level option which will present the contents of the quoted structure set to full page width – useful for large tables.
If you can’t find an element in the insert menu once you’ve inserted a quoted structure you will need to insert an adjacent quoted structure and select the provision from the ‘starting provision’ option in the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal. Adjacent quoted structures will blend into the current quoted structure in terms of display in the PDF, you just need to ensure the start and end quote appear at the start of your quoted structure (if required) and that your end quote appears after your last adjacent quoted structure.
You can select European Legislation which will provide a list of EU provisions correctly styled in the quoted structure although it’s not possible to create manual cross references to these provisions using the structure view at this current time.
If you are inserting a quoted structure in an amendment, the default start and end quotes will be the appropriate symbols for the document type, so for Scottish Parliament amendments, they will be greater than/less than angle brackets by default
Use backspace to delete the value in the starting element’s num if it is supposed to be empty. Empty placeholders show up as grey boxes in the Editor, but they do not show in the PDF rendition.
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